Seminar | Elite Theology or Popular Superstition? Animals and Angelology in Late Medieval Ashkenaz

Lecturer: 

Prof. David Shyovitz, Northwestern University

Prof. David Shyovitz of Northwestern University discussed the ways in which Jews perceived animals and their symbolic meanings, according to the Jewish literature of medieval Ashkenaz. He showed that while Christians often compared Jews to dogs in a pejorative sense, some Jews embraced this image and depicted dogs in an admirable way. He also discussed new methodological attitudes to the study of the relationship between humans and animals in the Middle Ages, and the possible implications of this subject for the history of the Jews. 

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Date: 

Thu, 23/03/2017 - 10:00 to 12:00

Location: 

Y. Rabin Building - The Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies